Homeroom 23

Chapter Sixteen: Revenge

Me and Daniel—though, mostly Daniel—devised a foolproof plan to very effortlessly and inconspicuously sneak out of lunch and find the bottle from Xaviers room (and hopefully if we got lucky even more damning evidence against him.) The only problem with said plan was that it required us staying together and Daniel abandoned me the second we walked into the cafeteria.

I guess abandoned is kind of a strong word, and it wasn't the second we walked into the cafeteria either. It was more like after he saw everyone waving to him at the front table and whispered to me in such a way no one else would be able to tell his mouth was moving something along the lines of, 'I'm gonna go, don't forget about the plan, bye!'

I was not the person anyone should be worried about forgetting the plan. Daniel, on the other hand, was sitting around a group of chaotic boys throwing around carrot sticks, so I could see where he might've been misdirected from our objective. I sat down very bitterly at my rightful table in the back of the room and watched in anger as Daniel slid effortlessly into conversation with the kids around him. Sometimes I found myself wishing I could do things as effortlessly as he could. I wish I was able to blend in seamlessly and mold myself to be the type of person others find tolerable.

"Hey, Melissa," Anthony said, sitting down at the table and rudely disrupting my flow of thoughts. "Did your boyfriend leave you already?"

"Shut up, Anthony. This is a touchy subject for me." Right as I was finishing my sentence, Noah had found his way to the table and was sitting himself down next to Anthony.

"What's a touchy subject?" He asked. "Did Daniel break up with you?"

"For the love of God, we were never together!" They both exchanged knowing glances with each other as I shook my head. I had more important things to worry about than Noah and Anthonys opinions on my love life. One such thing being Xavier and Samantha walking through the doors of the cafeteria hand-in-hand all starry-eyes for each other.

"Here they come," I heard Noah mutter under his breath. It was clear he wasn't the only one who had been thinking that, because it seemed as if every eye in the room was turned to the two of them as they took their rightful spot at the front table surrounded by the other 'popular' kids. I took note of the way the kids besides the scooted away the moment they sat down.

I laid my head down on the table as I played with the food I wasn't planning on eating, but Noah and Anthony were too good of friends to let me do that for too long.

"Come on Melissa," Noah sighed. "Watching you look so depressed is even starting to take a toll on me. Did he really break your heart that hard?"

"He didn't break my heart," I reiterated for the hundredth time. "I'm just tired and still a little sick from having seen a dead body."

"Well if you need to talk, we're both here for you." Anthony then put his hand on my resting shoulder to show support, though all it really made me want to do was wipe my shoulder because of the excess amount of grease and sweat that was for some reason on his palm. Meanwhile, at the front table Victoria and Samantha seemed to be getting along surprisingly well, considering all of the...barriers that had come between their friendship. In fact, some might even say it was going suspiciously well, and it was like the calm before the storm.

I've always had a weird ability to sense when a fight was going to break out, I think I just have a good survival instinct. Whatever the case, I knew I needed to get out of that lunchroom as quickly as possible before all hell broke loose. I very discreetly slid out of my chair and inconspicuously made my way towards the door. I would say I was doing a pretty good job of it before I was unnecessarily brought into the situation.

"Look at her!" Samantha yelled to Victoria, though their entire table was listening. "Trying to escape the minute things seem risky. Reminds me of someone!" I wanted to argue that that statement had nothing to do with me, and she was unfairly projecting, but Victoria had already yelled back a response.